Judge Ends Custody of Reputed Mafioso

Reputed Mafia figure Louis Tom Dragna will not have to serve any more time in custody for his 1980 racketeering conviction, but must perform 1,000 hours of community service, U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter Jr. decided Monday in Los Angeles.

Hatter's handling of Dragna's sentencing has been the source of a long-standing and bitter controversy between the Los Angeles jurist on one side and the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal Bureau of Prisons.

The judge tossed out the two-year prison term he initially imposed on Dragna because the Bureau of Prisons insisted that he serve it in a medium security prison in Texas instead of a minimum security facility in California.

Hatter instead allowed Dragna to serve a one-year term at a Riverside area halfway house, where he spent nights and weekends while still running his downtown Los Angeles dress manufacturing business during workdays.